The Orphan's Tale

The Orphan's Tale

by Pam Jenoff

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep… When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. And in a moment that will change the course of her life, she snatches one of the babies and flees into the snowy night. 

Noah finds refuge with a German circus, but she must learn the flying trapeze act so she can blend in undetected, spurning the resentment of the lead aerialist, Astrid.  At first rivals, Noa and Astrid soon forge a powerful bond.  But as the facade that protects them proves increasingly tenuous, Noa and Astrid must decide whether their friendship is enough to save one another-or if the secrets that burn between them will destroy everything.
from GoodReads

Review:  This was a good book but not a great one.  I'm having a hard time pinpointing what didn't work for me though.  I liked the premise of the story how people who were Jewish were taken in by the circus but Astrid's and Noa's relationship didn't work.  Astrid was clearly resentful of Noa but I couldn't figure out why she was so mean and unwilling to help.  Noa was such a meek girl who somehow changed to being a strong woman willing to stand up to people.  I felt like this transition and growth in Noa was unrealistic and came out of nowhere as was the development in the relationship between Astrid an Noa.  At times this book was slow moving.  I appreciated the look at WWII from a different perspective but the book fell a little flat for me.

Rating: 3 stars

22 Britannia Road

22 Britannia Road

Amanda Hodgkinson

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): In her powerful debut, Hodgkinson takes on the tale of a family desperately trying to put itself back together after WWII. Silvana and Janusz have only been married a few months when the war forces them apart. Silvana and their infant son, Aurek, leave Poland and disappear into the forests of Eastern Europe, where they bear witness to German atrocities. Meanwhile Janusz, the sole survivor of his slaughtered military unit, flees to France. There, he takes up with a local girl and, though he loves her, awaits the war's end so that he can go in search of his wife and son. He eventually finds them in a refugee camp and they travel to England together, where they attempt to put the past behind them. But the secrets they carry pull at the threads of their fragile peace. Hodgkinson alternates viewpoints to relay the story of three desperate characters, skillfully toggling between the war and its aftermath with wonderfully descriptive prose that pulls the reader into a sweeping tale of survival and redemption.

Review: A different type of World War II book, this novel dealt more with the aftermath of the war when a married couple is reunited after seven years of separation.  Silvana is a Polish refugee who managed to survive the war with her young son by living in the forest.  Janusz escaped Poland early on, fought for the Allies and established himself as a factory worker in a small English town.  When Silvana and her son Aurek finally arrive in England, they not only experience a huge cultural adjustment, but they also have to learn to live with Janusz and the secrets he carries from the war.

The author beautifully captures the relationship between Silvana and her disturbed young son, and writes convincingly about the marital relationship and Silvana and Janusz are trying to establish after years of absence and tragedy.  The flashbacks were gripping and disturbing, as one would expect from a World War II drama.  I was engrossed in the story, but I did find it easy to guess the big secrets that each character was hiding.

Rating: 4 stars

Salt to the Sea

Salt to the Sea

Ruta Sepetys

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war.

As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.

Yet not all promises can be kept.

Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope.

Review: It was fascinating to learn more about the little known Lithuanian refugees during World War II; I always appreciate a book that teaches me something new about history while telling a compelling story.  I was astonished to learn that this book was based on the true story of the largest maritime disaster of all time; the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, which I had never even heard of.  The author has clearly done lots of research about the subject, and managed to bring the story to life in a gripping and tragic way.

However, I had a heard time connecting with the characters, possibly due to the narrative jumping around quickly between the four different narrators.  In the beginning, it was even hard to remember which character was which, and that didn't improve as the story went on.  In my opinion, this book would have been so much better with more depth of character.

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Japanese Lover

The Japanese Lover

by Isabel Allende

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco's parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family's Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family, like thousands of other Japanese Americans are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world.

Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco's charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years.

from GoodReads

Review:  This book has been on my list to read for a while after someone in my book club suggested it.  I enjoy World War II historical fiction and have read a book or two about the Japanese internment camps before.  This book wasn't as good as the other books I have read on this topic.  I liked the addition of the present day story with the look back as to what happened to Alma and Ichimei earlier in their lives.  There was also the side story of Irina which I also found interesting as Irina was an interesting character.  I'm having a hard time putting my finger on what it was about the book that I did not connect to.  Perhaps the momentum of the story slowed down towards the middle of the book and that made me get a little bored of it or perhaps the author did not reveal enough about what was going on in a timely fashion.  There was also the jumping around in time periods which left me somewhat confused (although I did realize that I forgot to pause my audiobook at some point and it kept on going while I ran an errand!  Oops!)  It was a good story but not as captivating as other books I've read about WWII.

Rating:  3.5 stars

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding

Jackie Copleton

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): In the tradition of Memoirs of a Geisha and The Piano Teacher, a heart-wrenching debut novel of family, forgiveness, and the exquisite pain of love
 
When Amaterasu Takahashi opens the door of her Philadelphia home to a badly scarred man claiming to be her grandson, she doesn’t believe him. Her grandson and her daughter, Yuko, perished nearly forty years ago during the bombing of Nagasaki. But the man carries with him a collection of sealed private letters that open a Pandora’s Box of family secrets Ama had sworn to leave behind when she fled Japan. She is forced to confront her memories of the years before the war: of the daughter she tried too hard to protect and the love affair that would drive them apart, and even further back, to the long, sake-pouring nights at a hostess bar where Ama first learned that a soft heart was a dangerous thing. Will Ama allow herself to believe in a miracle?

Review: An interesting twist on a World War II historical fiction novel....

Written from the perspective of Amaterasu, a Japanese woman living in Philadelphia in the 1980s, this novel delves into the emotions of one survivor of the bombing of Nagasaki.  Amaterasu reflects on her complicated relationship with her daughter, who perished during the attack, and revisits secrets that were kept in the days leading up to the bombing.  The possible discovery of her missing grandson is almost secondary to the letters she reads from her daughter's lover.  Exquisite depictions of life in Japan in the early 20th century are intermingled with realistic descriptions of emotional turmoil.  A well-written and thought-provoking novel.
 

Rating: 4 stars

On Folly Beach

On Folly Beach

Karen White

Genre: Women's Fiction, Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Folly Beach, South Carolina, has survived despite hurricanes and war. But it's the personal battles of Folly Beach's residents that have left the most scars, and why a young widow has been beckoned there to heal her own...

To most people, Folly Beach is simply the last barrier island before reaching the great Atlantic. To some, it's a sanctuary for lost souls, which is why Emmy Hamilton's mother encourages her to buy the local book store, Folly's Finds, hoping it will distract Emmy from the loss of her husband.

Emmy is at first resistant. So much has already changed. But after finding love letters and an image of a beautiful bottle tree in a box of used books from Folly's Finds, she decides to take the plunge. But the seller insists on one condition: Emmy must allow Lulu, the late owner's difficult sister, to continue selling her bottle trees from its back yard.

For the most part Emmy ignores Lulu as she sifts through the love letters, wanting to learn more. But the more she discovers about the letters, the more she understands Lulu. As details of a possible murder and a mysterious disappearance during WWII are revealed, the two women discover that circumstances beyond their control, sixty years apart, have brought them together, here on Folly Beach. And it is here that their war-ravaged hearts can find hope for a second chance...

Review:  I chose this book to bring along on my vacation to South Carolina thinking that it would be a perfect beach read.  While the setting of the beach house on the salt marsh was in keeping with the area we were visiting, and the history around the bottle trees was interesting, I found this book too easy to put down.  The characters were flat, especially Maggie, the main character in 1942, and I found myself getting frustrated by her naivete and the way she let herself be treated by Cat.  The love story between her and Peter seemed to come out of nowhere, and I couldn't understand why she thought she was in love with him.  The story seemed to be building up to a great big surprise ending, and while there certainly were some twists, I had figured out the main one pretty early on in the story.  Emmy, with her grief over her KIA husband and her reluctance to make huge changes in her life, was a more relatable heroine, but I felt like her story took second place to the story set in the 1940s.

Rating: 3 stars

The Nightingale

The Nightingale

by Kristin Hannah

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  In love we find out who we want to be.

In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can...completely. When he betrays her, Isabelle races headlong into danger and joins the Resistance, never looking back or giving a thought to the real--and deadly--consequences.

With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah takes her talented pen to the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France--a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime. 

from GoodReads

Becky's Review:  This is a heartbreaking tale of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, during World War II who live in France during the German occupation there.  They both sacrifice so much and do whatever it takes to survive during the war but also are so brave to stand up for what they believe is right.  The story shows us what happened to the women and children who watched their men go off to war and the loss of innocence in childhood because of the horrific things that happened all around them.  My heart just ached for all the characters in the story and their struggle.  Vianne puts up a quiet struggle against the Nazis later in the war and Isabelle is bold and daring and ready to storm into the war working for the Resistance.  Isabelle is a hard character to like at the beginning because she is so young and brash but her transformation throughout the book makes us love her by the end and root for her to survive.  By the end this book had me in tears and the story has stayed with me.

Becky's Rating: 4.5 stars

Marcie's Review:  I agreed with Becky.  A beautiful, heartbreaking book.

Marcie's Rating: 5 stars

The Evening Chorus

The Evening Chorus

Helen Humphreys

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Downed during his first mission, James Hunter is taken captive as a German POW. To bide the time, he studies a nest of redstarts at the edge of camp. Some prisoners plot escape; some are shot. And then, one day, James is called to the Kommandant’s office.

Meanwhile, back home, James’s new wife, Rose, is on her own, free in a way she has never known. Then, James’s sister, Enid, loses everything during the Blitz and must seek shelter with Rose. In a cottage near Ashdown forest, the two women jealously guard secrets, but form a surprising friendship. Each of these characters will find unexpected freedom amid war’s privations and discover confinements that come with peace. The Evening Chorus is a beautiful, astonishing examination of love, loss, escape, and the ways in which the intrusions of the natural world can save us.
 
Review: This is a well-written book that presents glimpses into the lives of three related people during World War II and five years after the end of the war.  The descriptions of nature, especially birds and other wild animals, were beautifully done.  And the author captured the thoughts and emotions of the characters in an insightful way.  But this book was too bleak for me too truly enjoy.  The ending offered a modicum of hope that the characters' lives would improve, which saved it from a lower rating.

Rating: 3.5 stars

All the Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from the publisher):  Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall.

In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure.

Doerr's gorgeous combination of soaring imagination with observation is electric. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is his most ambitious and dazzling work.

Marcie's Review:  I don't have the words to describe how beautiful this book was.  You should read it.

Okay, I did have a few complaints about this book, but it was such a deeply moving story with truly beautiful descriptions, and that is what I'll remember for years to come.  Well, the other thing I'll remember is that I wasn't entirely happy with the ending; while I think it was the only ending possible for Werner, that doesn't mean I have to like it.  There was also a fair amount of jumping back and forth between different characters and different times, and I found that needlessly confusing.  But, oh, I felt so connected to the characters, even though I had absolutely nothing in common with them, that their hard decisions and their losses touched a cord in me and made me cry along with them.  And the writing was just lovely, so descriptive and lyrical.

Becky's Review:  I kept hearing over and over again from various people how great this book was and that I should read it.  I've picked it up a couple times but have been a little put off by it's bulk.  Long books are somewhat daunting to me.  But my book club was reading it so I had to get it read.  Perhaps my opinion of the book started on a negative side because of the length and because I had such high expectations for the book since everyone LOVED it.  Needless to say, I did not love it.  It was so slow to start and I kept putting it down because I wasn't engaged with the characters at all.  But then I would pick it up again, read a little bit more and then put it down again.  I was told it was slow to get into but would pick up.  It never picked up for me but I couldn't abandon it as I thought it would get better and more exciting.  One of my major problems with the book was the two separate characters who seemed to have no connection to each other and were living completely separate lives.  I kept waiting for them to come together and when they finally did I thought the book would go in a completely different direction and then I would find the book satisfying but no, it was a completely unappealing ending and a very anticlimactic one.  I felt very let down by the end.  I did find the look into how Nazi soldiers were trained very interesting as most of the time books about WWII do not focus on the development of a German soldier.  That made this book a little more intriguing to me.  The time jumping threw me off as well and since there was so much book in between the time jumping, I would often forget where we left off.  I know I'm in the minority for not loving this book and maybe that means I don't like literary books but I'm fine with that.  I'd rather read books that go somewhere and are more satisfying.

Marcie's Rating: 5 stars

Becky's Rating: 3 stars

Villa Triste

Villa Triste

Lucretia Grindle

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from the publisher): Florence, 1943. Two sisters, Isabella and Caterina Cammaccio, find themselves surrounded by terror and death; and with Italy trapped under the heel of a brutal Nazi occupation, bands of Partisans rise up.

Soon Isabella and Caterina will test their wits and deepest beliefs as never before. As the winter grinds on, they will be forced to make the most important decisions of their lives. Their choices will reverberate for decades.

In the present day, Alessandro Pallioti, a senior policeman agrees to oversee a murder investigation, after it emerges the victim was once a Partisan hero. When the case begins to unravel, Pallioti finds himself working to uncover a crime lost in the twilight of war, the consequences of which are as deadly today as they were over sixty years ago.

Review:  Despite getting off to a somewhat slow start, I found myself engrossed in this fascinating novel that's part contemporary mystery and part historical fiction.  I've read quite a few novels set during World War II, but this is the first one that has been set in Nazi-occupied Italy, and I appreciated the chance to learn about how the Italian partisans fought against both the Nazis and the Fascists.  The writing was beautifully descriptive, and the dialogue was smooth and believable.  My favorite parts were the journal entries that described the events in 1943 and 1944 in Florence, but I was also caught up in the present day mystery that Inspector Pallioti is attempting to solve.  My only complaint is that I would have liked the focus to be a little more on the historical side and a little less on the present, because some of the current day sections got a little long and tedious.  This is the best book I've read in quite a while, and I'm glad I kept reading through the slow beginning and wasn't put off by the length (and weight!) of the book.

Rating: 5 stars

Prisoner of Night and Fog

Prisoner of Night and Fog

by Anne Blankman

Genre: Historical Fiction, Young Adult Fiction

Synopsis: In 1930s Munich, danger lurks behind dark corners and secrets are buried deep within the city.  But Gretchen Muller, who grew up in the National Socialist Party under the wing of her uncle Dolf, has been shielded from that side of society ever since her father graded his life for Dolf's, and Gretchen is his favorite, his pet.

Uncle Dolf is none other than Adolf Hitler.  And Gretchen follows his every command.

Until she meets a fearless and handsome young Jewish reporter named Daniel Cohen.  Gretchen should despise Daniel, yet she can't stop herself from listening to his story: that her father, the adored Nazi martyr, was actually murdered by an unknown comrade.  She also can't help the fierce attraction brewing between them, despite everything she's been taught to believe about Jews.

As Gretchen investigates the very people she's always considered friends, she must decide where her loyalties lie.  Will she choose the safety of her former life as a Nazi darling, or will she dare to dig up the truth-even if it could get her and Daniel killed?

From the book jacket

Review:  This book started out quite slow.  I was tempted to abandon it 100 pages in but decided to give it another shot.  I'm glad that I did.  The book picked up so much after the first section.  I felt like the first section really just introduced characters but too many of them since I didn't know who people were later but I decided it really didn't matter for the most part.  The first section also told us about Gretchen's life with her brother, Reinhard, and implied that things happened between the two of them but didn't give us enough clues as to what had happened and that drove me a little nuts.  But once the action picked up, it was hard to put this book down.  Most books about WWII focus on individual people and their hardships, this book focused on someone who was close to Hitler, believed in his ideology, learned the truth and had to decide what to do.  It was also interesting to get a glimpse into Hitler as a person, how he empowered his followers, and a look into his past, even though this is a fictional book (the author did do research and includes a select bibliography).  Psychology comes into play and that just fascinates me!  I was satisfied with the ending and then I found out that there is a sequel due on in April 2015.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  I thought this worked well as a stand alone book.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

The Far Side of the Sky

The Far Side of the Sky

Daniel Kalla

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):  November 9, 1938—Kristallnacht—the Nazis unleash a night of terror for Jews all across Germany. Meanwhile, the Japanese Imperial Army rampages through China and tightens its stranglehold on Shanghai, a city that becomes the last haven for thousands of desperate European Jews.

Dr. Franz Adler, a renowned surgeon, is swept up in the wave of anti-Semitic violence and flees to Shanghai with his daughter. At a refugee hospital, Franz meets an enigmatic nurse, Soon Yi “Sunny” Mah. The chemistry between them is intense and immediate, but Sunny’s life is shattered when a drunken Japanese sailor murders her father.

The danger escalates for Shanghai’s Jews as the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Facing starvation and disease, Franz struggles to keep the refugee hospital open and protect his family from a terrible fate.

The Far Side of the Sky focuses on a short but extraordinary period of Chinese, Japanese, and Jewish history when cultures converged and heroic sacrifices were part of the everyday quest for survival.

Review:  The premise of this story is unique, educating readers about the thousands of German and Austrian Jews who escaped to Shanghai prior to World War 2.  The descriptions of the city were fascinating, and the plot was enjoyable.  But I felt like the characters were a little flat, the dialogue occasionally awkward, and some events too stereotypical.  The author also depicts snippets of life during a four year period, often skipping 6 months or a year before moving on to the next section.  Some of these gaps didn't bother me, but others seemed like they skipped too many important parts of the story.  The ending also came at a surprising time, about halfway through the war, and I would expect that the second half of the war would be equally challengeing for the Viennese refugees.  I wonder if a sequel is planned?  I wanted to love this book, but instead, I'll just say that I enjoyed it.

Rating: 3.5 stars

My Family for the War

My Family for the War

Anne C. Voorhoeve

Genre: Historical Fiction, Young Adult

Summary (from Goodreads):  Escaping Nazi Germany on the kindertransport changes one girl's life forever

At the start of World War II, ten-year-old Franziska Mangold is torn from her family when she boards the kindertransport in Berlin, the train that secretly took nearly 10,000 children out of Nazi territory to safety in England. Taken in by strangers who soon become more like family than her real parents, Frances (as she is now known) courageously pieces together a new life for herself because she doesn't know when or if she'll see her true family again. Against the backdrop of war-torn London, Frances struggles with questions of identity, family, and love, and these experiences shape her into a dauntless, charming young woman.

Originally published in Germany, Anne Voorhoeve's award-winning novel is filled with humor, danger, and romance.

Marcie's Review:  I really enjoyed the story of Franziska, a young German Protestant with Jewish ancestors, who escapes to England on one of the last kindertransports.  I hadn't realized that even people with Jewish ancestors were subject to persecution, and it was interesting to watch Franziska (known as Frances in England) learn about her Jewish faith through her foster family and friends.  As a heroine, Frances had her faults and her personality wasn't always likable, but I felt like that made her realistic - she's a tween girl after all.  What did confuse me is why her friend Bekka played such a prominent role in Frances' memory, while she seemed to forget about her mother so easily.  Perhaps it's a reflection that friends are more important to tweens than parents, but as a mother, I was saddened at how badly she treated her mother and how quickly she replaced her birth family with her foster family.  While I would understand a refugee child needing to do this to survive, it seemed like the author could have spent more time developing that need, and not treat it so casually.

Marcie's Rating: 4 stars

Becky's Review:  I found this book quite fascinating because I did not realize that people of Jewish heritage who never had been Jewish but in fact Protestant were persecuted by the Nazis and had to flee from Germany if they could.  It was ironic that Ziska was taken in by an Orthodox Jewish family in England and she learns what it means to be Jewish from the family.  I enjoyed reading about Ziska's experiences in England.  I had to remember while reading that this is a young adult book so there wasn't as much meat to the story as I am used to.  I felt like events and subsequent feelings were being told to me rather than trying to let me experience them. I didn't feel an emotional connection to any of the characters in the story and I didn't feel anything while reading the story.  I also didn't understand how Ziska could forget about her mother and I didn't feel that the author adequately explored the relationship between Ziska and her mother at the end.   There were times that I was confused by what was happening in the book.

Becky's Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Rose Under Fire

Rose Under Fire

Elizabeth Wein

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):  While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet, Rose Justice, is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbruck, the notorious women's concentration camp. Trapped in horrific circumstances, Rose finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery and friendship of her fellow prisoners. But will that be enough to endure the fate that's in store for her?

Elizabeth Wein, author of the critically-acclaimed and best-selling Code Name Verity, delivers another stunning WWII thriller. The unforgettable story of Rose Justice is forged from heart-wrenching courage, resolve, and the slim, bright chance of survival.

Review: I didn't like this book quite as much as Code Name Verity, and I fear that its rating may have suffered because of my high expectations based on that book. The story focused on the medical experiments performed by the Nazis on Polish women at the Ravensbruck concentration camp, a subject which I had little prior knowledge of.  While I know that the Nazis imprisoned groups of people in addition to Jews, it was strange that this book dealt entirely with those groups, and didn't mention Jews at all.  Rose was a plucky teenage girl who managed to survive the concentration camps, and I thought her behavior during the Nuremburg trials was not in fitting with her character at all.  So the ending was a little soured for me because of that.  I am not a big fan of poetry in general, and I'm not sure I understood all the poems that Rose wrote in the camp.

Rating: 4 stars (or maybe 3.5 after further reflection)

The Secret of Raven Point

The Secret of Raven Point

by Jennifer Vanderbes

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  1943: When seventeen-year-old Juliet Dufrense receives a cryptic letter from her enlisted brother and then discovers that he's been reported missing in action, she lies about her age and travels to the front lines as an army nurse, determined to find him.  Shy and awkward, Juliet is thrust into the bloody chaos of a field hospital, a sprawling encampment north of Rome where she forges new friendships and is increasingly consumed by the plight of her patients.  One in particular, Christopher Barnaby, a deserter awaiting court-martial, may hold the answer to her brother's whereabouts-but the trauma of war has left him catatonic.  Racing against the clock, Juliet works with an enigmatic young psychiatrist, Dr. Henry Willard, to break Barnaby's silence before the authorities take him away.  Plunged into the horrifying depths of one man's memories of combat, Juliet and Willard are forced to plumb the moral nuances of a so-called just war and to face the dangers of their own deepening emotional connection.

From the book jacket

Review:  This book was enjoyable but did not live up to what it promised to deliver.  From the title and the summary, one would expect that there is a mystery surrounding Juliet's brother, something suspicious due to his cryptic letter, and that Juliet is going to do everything in her power to find her brother.  But yet this book is much more about Juliet's experiences as a nurse at the front line in Italy and reading about the horrors that went on.  Juliet does attempt to find out information about her brother but the letter mystery is not solved at all in the story and we are left unsatisfied.  If this book had been advertised as being a story about a nurse during WWII and nothing about her brother, I could have rated this book higher.  Another complaint I have with this book is character development.  Juliet does some things that are completely out of her character and I didn't feel like the change in her character was supported by the other events that transpired.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

The Diplomat's Wife

The Diplomat's Wife

by Pam Jenoff

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  How have I been lucky enough to come here, to be alive, when so many others are not?  I should have died...But I am here.

1945.  Surviving the brutality of a Nazi prison camp, Marta Nederman is lucky to have escaped with her life.  Recovering from the horror, she meets Paul, an American soldier who gives her hope of a happier future.  But their plans to meet in London are dashed when Paul's plane crashes.

Devastated and pregnant, Marta marries Simon, a caring British diplomat, and glimpses the joy that home and family can bring.  But her happiness is threatened when she learns of a Communist spy in British intelligence, and that the one person who can expose the traitor is connected to her past.

From the back of the book

Review:  I had a hard time getting into this book in the beginning.  I felt like the character's emotions and feelings were lacking.  Marta is rescued from a Nazi prison camp and she is in terrible condition but yet she seems to recover physically fairly quickly and easily.  She has lost everything and everyone and yes, she does talk about where to go next, I just didn't feel it.  I couldn't feel the absolute despair that she should have been feeling.  When Marta meets Paula, I really didn't feel anything about their love at first sight.  I found it hard to believe that she was willing to be intimate with him after 2 meetings and that she was ready to marry him.  The book seemed fairly flat.  But once the action picks up when she goes on a mission for the British government, the book gets better.  I finally believed her feelings during this part of the book and after.  The middle and the end really changed my mind about the book.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Letters from Home

Letters from Home

Kristina McMorris

Genre: Women's Fiction, Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):  Chicago, 1944. Liz Stephens has little interest in attending a USO club dance with her friends Betty and Julia. She doesn't need a flirtation with a lonely serviceman when she's set to marry her childhood sweetheart. Yet something happens the moment Liz glimpses Morgan McClain. They share only a brief exchange--cut short by the soldier's evident interest in Betty--but Liz can't forget him. Thus, when Betty asks her to ghostwrite a letter to Morgan, stationed overseas, Liz reluctantly agrees.

Thousands of miles away, Morgan struggles to adjust to the brutality of war. His letters from "Betty" are a comfort, their soul-baring correspondence a revelation to them both. While Liz is torn by her feelings for a man who doesn't know her true identity, Betty and Julia each become immersed in their own romantic entanglements. And as the war draws to a close, all three will face heart-wrenching choices, painful losses, and the bittersweet joy of new beginnings.

Beautifully rendered and deeply moving, Letters from Home is a story of hope and connection, of sacrifices made in love and war--and the chance encounters that change us forever.

Review: This was a good book, but it took me a while to get into it, and I had a hard time keeping all the characters straight.  The beginning is pretty slow, and the three main female characters all seemed to have similar voices.  The story pick up halfway through, and the characters had differentiated themselves based on their experiences at least, so I found myself eager to read the last half of the book.  The letters between Liz and Morgan were beautifully written, and made me wish people still wrote letters like that!  But at times, the writing style was a little overly dramatic for me.  While I found the chapters written from Morgan's perspective to be interesting, the dialogue of his wartime buddies seemed a little stereotypical.  All-in-all, an interesting story, but not earth-shattering.

Rating: 3 stars

The Lost Wife

The Lost Wife

Alyson Richman

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):  A rapturous novel of first love in a time of war-from the celebrated author of The Rhythm of Memory and The Last Van Gogh.

In pre-war Prague, the dreams of two young lovers are shattered when they are separated by the Nazi invasion. Then, decades later, thousands of miles away in New York, there's an inescapable glance of recognition between two strangers...

Providence is giving Lenka and Josef one more chance. From the glamorous ease of life in Prague before the Occupation, to the horrors of Nazi Europe, The Lost Wife explores the power of first love, the resilience of the human spirit- and the strength of memory.

Review: I could not put this beautifully written novel down!  And that's saying a lot right now, since I'm having a hard time focusing on anything.  Lenka's story of pre-war Prague and her time in the concentration camp of Terezin presented an unfamiliar viewpoint of the Holocaust; it was interesting to learn about the work the artists did and the risks they took to provide arts and cultural experiences for the children and other inmates.  While I enjoyed the love story between Lenka and Josef, I felt that Lenka's story was so much more powerful and moving than Josef's.  I found myself trying to read through his sections quickly so I could get back to Lenka's story - I would have given this 5 stars if his story had been as emotional as Lenka's.  I was also disappointed by the ending; I wanted to know more!

You can read Becky's review here.

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Baker's Daughter

The Baker's Daughter

Sarah McCoy

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):  In 1945, Elsie Schmidt was a naïve teenager, as eager for her first sip of champagne as she was for her first kiss. But in the waning days of the Nazi empire, with food scarce and fears of sedition mounting, even the private yearnings of teenage girls were subject to suspicion and suppression. Elsie’s courtship by Josef Hub, a rising star in the Army of the Third Reich, has insulated her and her family from the terror and desperation overtaking her country. So when an escaped Jewish boy arrives on Elsie’s doorstep in the dead of night on Christmas Eve, Elsie understands that opening the door puts all she loves in danger.

Sixty years later, in El Paso, Texas, Reba Adams is trying to file a feel-good Christmas piece for the local magazine. Reba is a rolling stone, perpetually on the run from memories of a turbulent childhood, but she’s been in El Paso long enough to get a full-time job and a full-time fiancé, Riki Chavez. Riki, an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, finds comfort in strict rules and regulations, whereas Reba knows that in every good story, lines will be blurred.

Reba's latest assignment has brought her to the shop of an elderly baker across town. The interview should take a few hours at most, but the owner of Elsie's German Bakery is no easy subject. Elsie keeps turning the tables on Reba, and Reba finds herself returning to the bakery again and again, anxious to find the heart of the story. For Elsie, Reba's questions have been a stinging reminder of darker times: her life in Germany during that last bleak year of WWII. And as Elsie, Reba, and Riki's lives become more intertwined, all are forced to confront the uncomfortable truths of the past and seek out the courage to forgive.

Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the story of young Elsie, coming of age in Germany towards the end of World War II.  It was rewarding to see her growth from a good German girl to a woman who follows her conscience regardless of consequences.  The details of the Lebensborn program and the actions of her Nazi fiance were disturbing, of course, but weren't the primary focus of the story.  While I appreciated learning what happened to Elsie and her family and friends after World War II, I am downgrading this to 4 stars because I didn't feel that the story of Reba and Riki was as well-thought-out or compelling as the younger Elsie's story.

Rating: 4 stars

Between Shades of Gray

Between Shades of Gray

by Ruta Sepetys

Genre: Historical Fiction
*Many people in GoodReads have this listed as Young Adult but my library had it shelved in the adult fiction

Synopsis: In 1941, fifteen year old Lina is preparing for art school, first dates, and all that summer has to offer.  But one night, the Soviet secret police barge violently into her home, deporting her along with her mother and younger brother.  They are being sent to Siberia.  Lina's father has been separated from the family and sentenced to death in a prison camp.  All is lost.

Lina fights for her life, fearless, vowing that if she survives she will honor her family, and the thousands like hers, by documenting their experience in her art and writing.  She risks everything to use her art as messages, hoping they will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive.

It is a long and harrowing journey, and it is only their incredible strength, love, and hope that pull Lina and her family through each day.  But will love be enough to keep them alive?

From the book jacket

Review:  This was a beautifully written story about an atrocities that happened to Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians.  I personally didn't know what had happened and I'm quite appalled.  I felt so sorry for Lina and her family and I'm amazed at their ability to survive and to have the attitudes that they did.  I'm glad that there was an epilogue so I knew what happened to Lina in the future but it was also quite depressing to find out how long she endured being in a labor camp.  This story is quite engaging and is a fast read.  The chapters are very short.  You can read this book in little time.  The one thing I didn't care for was all the flashbacks where Lina talked about her life pre-labor camp.  They just seemed a little contrived.  But overall, a fabulous read.

Rating: 4 stars